Bigfish recently hosted a social media seminar for Memphis-area health care professionals. Roughly 20 providers attended, eager to learn about the skills they needed to successfully engage their patients through social media. During our time together, we identified three principal tactics that can help health care organizations achieve an effective social media presence.

The first step is to retire position-era marketing strategies and to create a shared experience for your patients. Use social media to promote patient engagement and generate dialogue. You do not have to practice medicine through this presence. We are simply talking about establishing connectivity. In the online world, that begins with conversation. Your patients want to interact with you and are prepared to do so. In fact, your patients are already talking about you – so join the discussion.

Your patients need to be able to trust you. Health is one of the most important things in life and, therefore, meeting expectations is crucial in any patient-provider relationship. For that reason, the second step to achieving an effective social media strategy is to be a trusted and reliable source of information. Furthermore, it is beneficial to offer a collaborative type of discussion. Not only do patients value your expertise, they also trust their friends and family who will also be an active part of the conversation.

And finally, you must resolve to make connections and not announcements. This means you will need to develop a posting technique that encourages two-way conversation instead of a technique that simply promotes or advertises. As a provider, you want the dialogue between you and your patients to be open-ended in order to influence questions, comments or discussion.

The benefits of this approach will become evident over time. The dialogue will lead your patient family to better health. And while health is a deeply personal experience, health care is a shared experience.

The community values your expertise. So, stop selling and start sharing. The connections will lead to better health outcomes for the entire community.

Bigfish is an interactive creative company that develops award winning web sites, brand strategies, and marketing communication initiatives.

Questions, comments or discussion? Talk to me: tim@gobigfishgo.com

For more information about our seminar please visit: http://www.gobigfishgo.com/whoweare/press

Tags:

Related:

Bookmark:

Digg

Facebook

Technorati

Newsvine

Google